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Does anyone know the story Empress of the Seas? I see rumors online that it is going to be scrapped

At last word from Royal Caribbean Group Chairman and CEO Richard Fain, only the pullmantur cruises will be scrapped. I tend to believe that. Plus this would be used if Cuba is opened back up

A Royal Caribbean spokesperson gave Cruise Critic the following statement: "Empress is not headed to the scrap yard, she’s still a part of the Royal Caribbean Fleet." -- There is no date of this comment

 

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5 minutes ago, SpeedNoodles said:

Unacceptable.  I'm booked on her in January in an Owner's Suite.  Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Maybe this is a blessing in disguise.  IF your Jan. Empress gets cancelled (or maybe, even if it doesn’t ??), it will be a great opportunity for you to L&S this cruise to an Owner’s Suite on one of the big ships.  I just read an account of someone doing this very thing, only they did it on purpose to get the big suite on a big ship at a fraction of the price.

Think how awesome it would be to get an Owner’s Suite on Symphony or Oasis for the price you paid on Empress !  The only down side is that you would have to wait a year....which totally sucks, but when it finally gets here - yippee !

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2 minutes ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Maybe this is a blessing in disguise.  IF your Jan. Empress gets cancelled (or maybe, even if it doesn’t ??), it will be a great opportunity for you to L&S this cruise to an Owner’s Suite on one of the big ships.  I just read an account of someone doing this very thing, only they did it on purpose to get the big suite on a big ship at a fraction of the price.

Think how awesome it would be to get an Owner’s Suite on Symphony or Oasis for the price you paid on Empress !  The only down side is that you would have to wait a year....which totally sucks, but when it finally gets here - yippee !

I tried L&Sing it a while ago.  It's an 8 night and Michelle couldn't find anything that qualified.

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Rumors are cheap and plentiful.

Considering they recently put a lot of money into her when bringing her back in 2016 she is in pretty great shape.  New galley, refreshed guest areas including the best Boleros in the fleet.  I could understand her going to a cruise line in the family but scrapping her seems undue. 

 

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3 hours ago, Jmccaffrey said:

Does anyone know the story Empress of the Seas? I see rumors online that it is going to be scrapped

At last word from Royal Caribbean Group Chairman and CEO Richard Fain, only the pullmantur cruises will be scrapped. I tend to believe that. Plus this would be used if Cuba is opened back up

A Royal Caribbean spokesperson gave Cruise Critic the following statement: "Empress is not headed to the scrap yard, she’s still a part of the Royal Caribbean Fleet." -- There is no date of this comment

 

I hope its not true but you need to take everything said during company earnings calls and within their SEC filings with a grain of salt.  No company will reveal any future plans until they are 1000% definitive and the statements made almost always allow wiggle room so anything is possible.

The below link is to a ship brokers website where if you scroll down you'll recognize several Royal ships (newer and bigger than the Empress and Majesty) that could be sale if the price is right.  These listings are from before COVID even materialized.  Royal's business plan is the mass market, any opportunity to remove smaller lower margin ship to free up capacity for newer larger ships or in the post-COVID world, remove low margin over capacity will be seriously considered.   I'm sure the accountants view this as a great time to take large write-offs associated with the sale/scrapping of a vessel.

https://www.qpsships.com/pre-owned-cruise-ships

While I love the newer larger ships, I do still love both the Empress and Majesty, they are very sentimental to me and every now and then I enjoy the intimacy of a smaller ship.  I am very hopeful that Royal can hold onto these ships but every day this pandemic drags on makes that a harder proposition for them.

 

 

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21 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Try again ?  I’ve heard they are being a little more lenient recently.

They were being super lenient about my April 2021 Southern Caribbean out of San Juan when I called earlier this week... they were really wanting to put me on Allure to the Western Caribbean or on Harmony to Bahamas/Eastern Caribbean which I thought was weird. She had to get a supervisor's approval to allow me to L&S from Freedom in April 21 to Freedom in April 22, both with the same itinerary! ?

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